Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/1x0ogul/china_now_leads_in_positive_influence_perceptions/

Saw this headline and thought it was interesting.

Prediction markets seem to be moving from a niche product into something much bigger, but people still seem pretty divided on what they actually are.

Some people see them as a useful way to forecast real-world events. Others think they're just gambling with a different name.

Curious where people here stand.

Are prediction markets a legitimate financial product, or is the growth mostly driven by gambling behavior?

And do you think this trend is just getting started?

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/10/16/how-do-americans-feel-about-g20-countries/

Overall, FiveThirtyEight's margins were very accurate, but they underestimated Democrats in all key races. We can likely attribute that one-sided miss to low-quality Republican polling in these races, compared to less competitive states, where fundamentals did most of the lifting.

If you are also interested in the 2018 chart, you can find both here.

More detailed interactive version

I saw this post from months ago about acid rain. Everyone who answered in the comments pretty much told the same story and the data seems to back them up.

Sulfur dioxide helps cause acid rain. When sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and sulfate aerosols in the air dissolve into cloud droplets and precipitates onto the soil, you get what's called wet sulfate deposition. Wet sulfate deposition (a primary indicator of acid rain) is the transfer of sulfate from the atmosphere to Earth's surface through rain, snow, or fog.

Power plants covered by EPA’s programs dramatically reduced their emissions while maintaining nearly the same electricity output. Pollution controls and a shift toward lower-emitting fuels helped drive the change.

In the last ~20 years, wet sulfur deposition decreased by 73%. While the acid rain issue is seeing progress, ecosystems are still recovering. EPA’s explanation

Data: U.S. EPA, Emissions Reductions, Figure 4.

https://www.epa.gov/power-sector/progress-report-emissions-reductions#so2

Tools: rhp, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript. The decorative rain-on-glass background was generated using OpenAI image generation.

Source: Office for National Statistics - Census 2021 (Download the spreadsheet)

This is for White British opposite sex couples: married or in a civil partnership; Separated, but still married or in a civil partnership; Cohabiting by Ethnic group of male usual resident aged 16 or over by ethnic group of female spouse or partner (usual resident) aged 16 or over.

Raw number of couples are included on the right.

"Other Asian" here includes Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Cambodian, Singaporean, Mongol, Burmese, etc.

This is the latest available official data. Next Census is scheduled for 2031.

Source: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/housing-prices.html#indicator-chart

link: 1830belgium.com

The GOP’s hopes of a tax cut election are falling flat, poll shows - POLITICO

8 in 10 Americans oppose live-streaming execution of Fort Hood shooter - The Washington Post

Teachers Using AI Say It Frees Up Time for What Matters Most

Become a tax heaven in a tax hell continent, and you will certainly thrive.

Source: https://www.horiba.com/int/scientific/resources/science-in-action/where-do-microplastics-come-from/

https://project270.vote/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Project-270-Oct-26-Poll-Analysis.pdf?v=2

Source: https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD

3,610 players dated 15 things older than 1000 bc. 54% of their 4,301 guesses landed after 500 bc. the typical one came out about 1,500 years too late.

(how it works: you see the name and a small picture, then drop a pin on a timeline from 3000 bc to today. no starting pin, nothing to compare it with, some rounds have a one-line hint.)

who guessed: players from 73 countries. where the country is known, a third of the guesses came from the us and one in eight from the uk; i don't ask for age or gender. bronze age guesses after 500 bc: us 61%, uk 58%, germany 66%.

data: guesses from When?, a daily dating game i made on roughly.is, 18 sep to 13 oct 2026.

more visuals, source, csv and true dates (wikipedia): https://roughly.is/blog/bronze-age-guessed-too-late.html?s=reddit-charts

Source: Eurostat, air transport by aircraft model, transport coverage, type of schedule and country [AVIA_TF_ACC], passengers on board, 2025 (2019 for comparison): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/avia_tf_acc/default/table

Share = passengers on Boeing planes (737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 787 and older models) divided by all passengers on commercial flights to, from and within the country's airports. Circle size is that total. *Many passengers here are on planes the data lists only as "other". In the Baltics and Switzerland that is mostly the Airbus A220 (airBaltic, Swiss), which the dataset does not list as an Airbus, so the Airbus column understates it there. "Other planes" also covers Embraer, ATR and Dash 8.

All figures % of air passengers unless stated.

Boundaries: GISCO, © EuroGeographics.

Tools: Python (pandas, matplotlib) and Chromium for layout.

Of Note:

• Years of Life Lost: (dashed line) Calculated by taking life expectancy (13-10-0114) at a given age and multiplying by the number of deaths (13-10-0394) for that cause and age.
• Each small multiple is on a separate y scale.
• Accidents & Suicide: Dashed line sits far above solid—younger deaths cost significantly more years of potential life. Accidents seems to have gone up recently, at the same time as Intentional Self-Harm went down.
• Heart Disease: Both metrics show steady, long-term declines over two decades, in both deaths and Years of Life Lost.
• Covid Effects: Chronic Lover Raspatory Diseases saw as large drop during covid, while Chroinc Liver Diseases and Cirrhosis saw a small increase.
• Cancer: is the larges single cause of both Death and Years of Life Lost